Rounded Landscape Edging Products

Rounded strip edging is perfect for curved garden beds.

Edging can add order and beauty to your landscape, but it also serves important functions such as keeping weeds and grass away from flower beds, preventing mulch from washing away, and providing a cleaner mowing and trimming line. If your landscape has a lot of curved or rounded borders, a flexible product that can be bent will be easier and cheaper to install. The variety of materials, textures and colors available in rounded landscape edging products will also make it easy to coordinate with almost any yard design.

Choosing the Right Materials

Before deciding on the right rounded edging product, determine whether you are going for a formal or informal look, how much time you have to maintain the edging and your budget. Plastic edging is the most inexpensive and won't crack in extreme temperatures, but it has a much more informal look and is typically only available in dark green or black. Metal edging can be painted a variety of colors and lasts a long time, but is more expensive. To determine how much edging you need for circular beds, measure all perimeter sides, add them together and multiply the diameter of the circle by 3.14; or curve a garden hose or string around the edge and measure that length with a tape measure.

Bender Board

Bender board can be made from a rot-resistant wood such as redwood or cedar, or from recycled or engineered plastic that is formed into brown, black or green strips. Bender board strips are typically 16 or 20 feet long by 4 to 8 inches tall by 1/4 to 2 inches wide. Bender board is a lightweight material and easily cut with a saw, making it easy for even beginning gardeners to use. Bender board provides a more natural look than plastic, but any seams and splices that develop over time may eventually separate.

Metal Strips

Metal edging is frequently used by professional landscapers due to clean lines and a thin profile that makes it less conspicuous than other types of edging. Steel edging is available in widths of 5 to 6 inches and in lengths of 10 to 20 feet in different gauges. Aluminum edging is sold in similar dimensions, but is lighter and won't rust, although steel can be painted to help prevent rust. Both types of metal strips are bendable, but are less flexible than plastic. If steel edging becomes dislodged and leaves sharp exposed edges, it can be dangerous to people, pets and lawnmowers.

Polyvinyl Strips

Plastic polyvinyl edging strips are either smooth or corrugated with a rounded top edge and an upturned bottom edge that anchors the strip. Strips are typically sold in rolled sections that are 20 feet long by 3 to 4 inches tall. Despite being lightweight, polyvinyl strips can be difficult to install, requiring stakes or screws to hold them in place. You may find it's easier to work with shorter sections in warmer weather when the plastic is more pliable. Polyvinyl strips are sometimes considered to be the least aesthetic of the various types of rounded edging products.

Rubber Strips

Rubber edging material is made from recycled tires and available in black, brown or red. It's sold in strips that are easy to roll out along your flower bed or other curved border, then simply stake with garden staples. The strips tend to be shorter than the plastic edging, commonly available in 8 to 10 inch lengths. However, the rubber strips are textured and have a greater width of up to 10 inches that make these strips look just like rubber mulch.

Scalloped Edging

Concrete edging usually has to be custom-designed and poured in place, especially when difficult shapes such as curved borders are involved. Curved edging blocks made from waste products such as ashes or from terracotta, resin or composites, are an easy and less expensive alternative. These curved blocks are manufactured in different colors such as white, gray or red, and have scalloped top edges that add a decorative look to paths and flowerbeds. The pieces are precast, however, so they aren't flexible and won't be useful for longer borders.

About the Author

Bonnie Singleton has been writing professionally since 1996. She has written for various newspapers and magazines including "The Washington Times" and "Woman's World." She also wrote for the BBC-TV news magazine "From Washington" and worked for Discovery Channel online for more than a decade. Singleton holds a master's degree in musicology from Florida State University and is a member of the American Independent Writers.